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Melancholia, from the Physiological and Evolutionary Points of View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

George M. Robertson
George M. Robertson*
Affiliation:
Royal Asylum, Morningside, Edinburgh
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Extract

Probably no form of insanity includes so many varieties, or is characterized by so peculiar and even contradictory symptoms as melancholia. Under this form of mental derangement most authors include a variety they term excited or active melancholia which is characterized by a motor excitement, sometimes equalling that of acute mania, and they also include another variety termed melancholia with stupor, in which the patient remains absolutely motionless and quiet. Two more strikingly different varieties of insanity it would be impossible to describe, and we are at once confronted by the question — What explanation is there of the existence of these symptoms in melancholia?

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 36 , Issue 152 , January 1890 , pp. 53 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1890

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